Page 88 of Fighting For You

"Really," I said. "It's nothing to worry about."

He looked at me for another second, then nodded. I could see he wasn't buying all of it, but he let it go. He was getting better at that, knowing when to push and when to leave something alone.

"How was school?" Nora asked.

"Fine."

"Fine how?"

"Fine normal. I went, I sat through all my classes, I came home." He pulled his phone from his pocket and held it up. "Do you want to check my location history?"

Nora studied him. "No. I believe you."

Ian put the phone back and went down the hall to his room. The door closed quietly behind him.

Nora sat on the arm of the couch and looked at me. I reached over with my good hand and rested it on her knee. She covered it with hers.

The house was quiet. Ian's door was shut. The kitchen light hummed. Nora's thumb moved back and forth across my knuckles while I stared at the ceiling and thought about what Thorne had said.

Targeted.

Two bikes from the footage already in the gang database. A coordinated formation. Not road rage. The people who boxed me in knew what they were doing, and they wanted me to know it too.

"I'm going to call Andy tomorrow," I said.

Nora's thumb stopped. "About what Thorne said?"

"About what we're dealing with. She knows this world better than either of us."

Nora squeezed my hand. "Okay."

Wyatt and Andy came by the next afternoon. Wyatt brought food from a place near the station.

Wyatt sat down at the kitchen table and scratched the back of his head. "So, since you and Travis are both down, B-shift has been picking up our slots. Greene's been running doubles to cover. Carl's wife is not happy about the schedule."

Andy settled in next to him.

"Where's Ian?" she asked.

"School," Nora said. "He should be home around four."

"Good." Andy nodded once. "That's good."

Nora brought coffee to the table and sat down next to me. The room settled.

"Andy," I said. "We need to talk about what we're up against."

She looked at me, then at Nora. "Thorne called me. I know what happened on Tropicana."

"What does it mean?"

Andy leaned forward, elbows on her knees. "When LVMPD took down Wayne's operation, they removed a crew that controlled a piece of territory on the east side. Auto theft, parts trafficking, some low-level distribution. It wasn't a major operation, but it was established. The crew that ran it had been there for years."

She paused.

"When that happens, the territory doesn't just go quiet. Other crews see an opening. They move in, they test boundaries, they establish dominance. The first few months after a bust are the most volatile because everyone is repositioning."

"And the guys on Tropicana?"